Fabrizio Ruffo

Fabrizio Ruffo (16 September 1744-13 December 1827) was a Neapolitan cardinal who led the Sanfedismo movement in southern Italy during the French Revolutionary Wars.

Biography
Fabrizio Ruffo was born in San Lucido, Calabria, Kingdom of Two Sicilies on 16 September 1744. He belonged to a family of nobles, and his uncle was a cardinal of the Catholic church. In 1775, Pope Pius VI, a friend of his, appointed him to a high church position, and he became Minister of War of the Papal States. In 1791, he was removed from this post, but he became a member of the College of Cardinals, and he led the anti-republican Sanfedismo movement in southern Italy in 1799, when the French-backed Parthenopaean Republic was faced with popular uprisings. However, he lost the favor of King Ferdinand IV of Naples when he decided to spare the republicans, but he would return to favor after the Bourbons were restored to power in Naples after Joachim Murat's defeat in 1815. He helped the king in putting down republican uprisings in 1822, and he died in 1827.